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I played DF1 for a bit, and there were some major issues that turned me off. I will also offer my solutions to said issues and reference how other games handled similar problems. I don't post often, but from my join date, you can see I've been around for a while, so I have some experience in forming these opinions(I browsed long before I joined as well).

1) Travel:

-People associate no fast travel with "hardcore" somehow. This is simply not true. UO did travel in a pvp game right. You could move around the world quick via rune books, moon gates, and player portals. You had buc's den for murderers and lots of cities for blues. In DF, I found myself hitting auto run and checking FB for 20 minutes. I want to play a game. Not run for 20 minutes, or swim for 30, to play a game. Traveling shouldn't be as easy as GW2, but moongates and recall runes or something similar would be a huge improvement. DF had some of this, but it was far from accessible by everyone.

2) NBA style crack pvp:

-Let me explain. Most pvp encounters in DF seemed to devolve into some jumping and spinning fest that looked similar to how I imagine creating dub step would look(insert picture of cerebral palsy kid smashing forehead on keyboard). In a game that advertises "skill based pvp" I was very dissapointed. Seeing 2 kids bunny hop in circles fighting 1v1 was just... ugh. When I imagine skill my first thought goes to CS 1.6 or UO. CS involved quicking thinking, teamwork, and reflexes. UO much the same, but more personal strategy. I would love to see DF be more about thinking than spamming... any game where bunny hopping is a viable strategy I'm unable to take seriously.

3) PvE choices

-My fondest memories of UO were gathering a group of friends, a pack horse, and tackling a dungeon. Going solo was extremely dangerous with pvpers, but a successful dungeon run was very profitable. Everytime I logged onto DF I was presented with the option of grouping up and zerg pvping, grouping up and zerg pvping, grouping up and zerg pvping, solo pvping and dying from a zerg group, or exploiting mob spawns. There was nothing driving me or pushing me to want to explore and dungeon crawl. One of the greatest aspects of PvP is dungeon fights, and knowing the stakes are so much higher when you are fighting over hours worth of loot.

Am I the only one who feels this way? I love the concept of DF, and I want to support the devs. The UI and bugs didn't bother me in the least bit. Graphics don't mean anything to me. The devs build a great playground equipped with a sandbox, but forgot to give us the tools to dig in the sand with. The game just felt too much like a giant FFA, and not a world.

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Well in DF:UW they did say they implemented some things to prevent bunny hopping for the most part. They also added a wobble target so when you move you become less accurate... so that could possibly limit the circling around killing..

Momentum and crosshair wobble are intended mainly adding an extra tactical element to Darkfall Unholy Wars. Shooting a bow or spell while sprinting should not be as easy as when standing still for example. So sprinting offers the maximum amount of penalty to attack accuracy, running, crouch walking offer a diminished penalty while standing still has no penalty. In the same way, momentum makes movement more realistic and encourages proper positioning as opposed to sprinting all time while swinging wildly trying to land a hit. Still, however, Darkfall: Unholy Wars is a real time manually aimed game so these effects are quite mild as we do not want to affect gameplay too much.

There will be an small chance to fail at casting a spell in Darkfall Unholy Wars. However, this chance will become greater if there is a "fizzle" debuff on you.

As for wall of forces kind of physics spells and abilities, we do feel that the new roles system has room for them, so yes they will be in. However only people of specific roles can use them and they will be more logical and balanced.

Bunnyhopping is a concept we are trying hard to remove from gameplay but at the same in players we trust to find ways of abusing their abilities. In that case we will take appropriate action if we think something is game breaking or does not agree with the spirit of Darkfall: Unholy Wars.

"I see they watchin' me and takin' notes on my moves, Run up on me it's all I want I ain't got nothin' to lose."

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When asked what PvE or sandbox elements that they were adding to DF:UW, they recently responded with a myriad of answers, all of which involved PvP, territory control, politics in PvP and other various PvP references. So if you want a lot more focus on player housing, professions, strengthening player economy, harvesting, exploration, dungeons, and other similar sandbox fluff, you are going to be left in the dark.

These guys at Darkfall recognize a lot of the flaws in their game. They however, do not understand or are not willing to make changes to draw in new gamers. This title would do well if it added UO style fluff to it. I mean, really, their first expansion off of this new release should be PvE and sandbox feature exclusive. There are so many people who love a lot of the things that DF has, but there are enough flaws that are just too big for most gamers to handle.

I'm not talking about FFA PvP or full loot either. I'm talking about a combat system that is clunky, to say the least. A 1st person perspective that is outdated and (In exception for the few thousand that actually still play) unpopular. A lack of attention to sandbox features that would push the title in the direction of fantasy world simulator instead of large instanced PvP arena.

Though, I do have to say that my major complaint list is significantly smaller now, assuming that this new game is released as advertised. I won't hold my breath on that one though.

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Originally posted by sacredcow4

I played DF1 for a bit, and there were some major issues that turned me off. I will also offer my solutions to said issues and reference how other games handled similar problems. I don't post often, but from my join date, you can see I've been around for a while, so I have some experience in forming these opinions(I browsed long before I joined as well).

1) Travel: [snip]

2) NBA style crack pvp: [snip]

3) PvE choices: [snip]

Am I the only one who feels this way? I love the concept of DF, and I want to support the devs. The UI and bugs didn't bother me in the least bit. Graphics don't mean anything to me. The devs build a great playground equipped with a sandbox, but forgot to give us the tools to dig in the sand with. The game just felt too much like a giant FFA, and not a world.

I totally agree with you OP. I guess the devs have to make a choice to either stay true to their current playerbase or change things and get more people like us to play.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. - Carl Sagan

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I totally agree with you OP. I guess the devs have to make a choice to either stay true to their current playerbase or change things and get more people like us to play.

The thing is though... they can stay true to the original Darkfall and deliver other compelling elements simultaneously. Current players seem to think it is one or the other, and aspiring players seem to think the current system is broken beyond repair, which is definitely not true. The current system just needs, as one previous poster put it, more fluff. UO was great in that every log in you started off with 1 of 1000 things you wanted to do, then ended up doing something completely different and oft-times unique based on what the community was doing at that moment. Darkfall is JUST pvp. I love pvp, but with so many games saturating the market my choices are less restrictive. I don't believe DF can survive as just a pvp game. Planetside couldn't, and the only difference between those games was fast travel and the grind. (and the genre and combat, but as far as what players did....)

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I totally agree with you OP. I guess the devs have to make a choice to either stay true to their current playerbase or change things and get more people like us to play.

The thing is though... they can stay true to the original Darkfall and deliver other compelling elements simultaneously. Current players seem to think it is one or the other, and aspiring players seem to think the current system is broken beyond repair, which is definitely not true. The current system just needs, as one previous poster put it, more fluff. UO was great in that every log in you started off with 1 of 1000 things you wanted to do, then ended up doing something completely different and oft-times unique based on what the community was doing at that moment. Darkfall is JUST pvp. I love pvp, but with so many games saturating the market my choices are less restrictive. I don't believe DF can survive as just a pvp game. Planetside couldn't, and the only difference between those games was fast travel and the grind. (and the genre and combat, but as far as what players did....)

I agree there are things that can be done to make the game better. But as far as taking away FFA looting and having PvE only zones and servers... no.

"I see they watchin' me and takin' notes on my moves, Run up on me it's all I want I ain't got nothin' to lose."

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Originally posted by DAS1337

When asked what PvE or sandbox elements that they were adding to DF:UW, they recently responded with a myriad of answers, all of which involved PvP, territory control, politics in PvP and other various PvP references. So if you want a lot more focus on player housing, professions, strengthening player economy, harvesting, exploration, dungeons, and other similar sandbox fluff, you are going to be left in the dark.

I think exploration was never a problem in DF; the world is so large and hand-crafted that there is an infinite amount of places to discover.

These guys at Darkfall recognize a lot of the flaws in their game. They however, do not understand or are not willing to make changes to draw in new gamers. This title would do well if it added UO style fluff to it. I mean, really, their first expansion off of this new release should be PvE and sandbox feature exclusive. There are so many people who love a lot of the things that DF has, but there are enough flaws that are just too big for most gamers to handle.

I'm not talking about FFA PvP or full loot either. I'm talking about a combat system that is clunky, to say the least. A 1st person perspective that is outdated and (In exception for the few thousand that actually still play) unpopular. A lack of attention to sandbox features that would push the title in the direction of fantasy world simulator instead of large instanced PvP arena.

There has been a 3rd person view (locked perspective) for over a year now. Yes, FPV was a bit awkward but they've fixed that.

Though, I do have to say that my major complaint list is significantly smaller now, assuming that this new game is released as advertised. I won't hold my breath on that one though.

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I agree with the OP. Most of those ideas that you listed are pretty much exactly what I want in a game. Although I don't think it would be easy to do. In UO they had tons of housing areas, but also tons of problems.. Zoning issues, terrain problems, not to mention lag. Granted computers have come a long way since then, but im willing to bet it's probably a pain in the ass to code, and get it right. I'm hoping one day a game will have all of these elements, and do them justice at the same time. I don't think it will be DF:UW though.. at least not in the first year or 2.

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Could we please not discuss a PvE server, that subject has been beaten to death a million times already.

Those still bitching about it need to move on.

As for the op, I agree with everything except the fast travel. Inho DF need less fast travel and more focus on regionality, since it would promote the sandbox gameplay most of us want. Regional banking, regional resources, regional conflict, rather than s global arena where people port around freely.

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Originally posted by BiskopCould we please not discuss a PvE server, that subject has been beaten to death a million times already.

Those still bitching about it need to move on.

As for the op, I agree with everything except the fast travel. Inho DF need less fast travel and more focus on regionality, since it would promote the sandbox gameplay most of us want. Regional banking, regional resources, regional conflict, rather than s global arena where people port around freely.

as much as we all want a regional type game, the playerbase would have to be massive for something like this to occur, so there would be constant stimulation in each region, i don't think this is whats going to happen though, they've already stated there is going to be portal hubs that everyone can use (will probably end up being controlled by whichever clans are closest and strongest enough to camp it, which will create PVP), as for regional banking, again i can't see this working unless i have reason to stay in 1 area, for like... ever. Regional Resources/Conflict are already in the game, every island (apart from nifflheim, cause niff sucks balls) in the game has this, fighting over the mob spawns, the villages, and such and sometimes you'll get that awesome back and forth non-stop fighting session between 2 holdings.